TUESDAY, 26 JUNE 2018 There was never going to be any difficulty in their first season, PEDIGREE INSIGHTS: SEA THE when Sea The Stars was priced at i85,000 and Frankel at ,125,000 and they respectively covered 136 and 131 mares. The STARS & CRYSTAL OCEAN problem is that there isn't an endless supply of breeders prepared to invest heavily in untried but high-priced stallions and events showed that not even Sea The Stars and Frankel were immune to the fluctuating demand that affects so many young stallions in their first four seasons. It now seems hard to believe that Sea The Stars's totals in those first four years were 136, 83, 138 and 82 mares. Frankel's figures were 131, 128, 104 and 105. Perhaps Frankel's arrival as a stallion in 2013 was partly to blame for Sea The Stars's book falling to 82 mares, but their main problem was that these unproven horses were competing against stallions whose ability to sire top performers had been proven time after time. Cont. p2 Crystal Ocean | Racing Post IN TDN AMERICA TODAY by Andrew Caulfield There was something of a family affair about the most TDN Q&A: AMERICAN PHAROAH’S FIRST YEARLINGS successful stallions at Royal Ascot last week, with the six Lucas Marquardt chats with Coolmore’s American nominations stallions responsible for two or more winners featuring Galileo, manager Adrian Wallace regarding the first yearlings by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile). Click or Galileo's son Frankel and Galileo's half-brother Sea The Stars. tap here to go straight to TDN America. Of course this trio features two of the most extraordinary racehorses ever to have graced the turf, with Frankel and Sea The Stars's combined efforts amounting to 22 wins from 23 starts, the only defeat coming on Sea The Stars's debut. Between them they landed 16 Group 1s and took high rank on Timeform's list of all-time greats, with Frankel improving his rating from 143 at three to 147 at four, while Sea The Stars achieved a figure of 140 at three. Sea The Stars's physique suggested that he too might have pushed his rating even higher had he stayed in training at four. Both these superstars are imposing physical specimens, both were group winners at two, both won the G1 2000 Guineas and the G1 Juddmonte International and both linked to Galileo, who had already claimed the first of his nine sires' championships before Sea The Stars commenced his stallion career in 2010. Galileo was a four-time champion sire by the time Frankel made his debut at Banstead Manor in 2013. Consequently, the path to stardom as a stallion might have been expected to be as smooth and straight as it could possibly be, but even these exceptional Classic winners have had to go through a few trials and tribulations along the way. TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 2 OF 8 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • 26 JUNE 2018 Sea The Stars & Crystal Ocean Cont. from p1 In Sea The Stars's first four years, his half-brother Galileo covered books of 175, 215, 196 and 191 mares, whereas Frankel's first four years clashed with the rise of Dubawi, whose book stood at 136, 157, 157 and 157. Needless to say, Frankel and Sea The Stars have both quickly proved that they belong among the small club of elite stallions, with Sea The Stars's fee now standing at i135,000, as opposed to the original i85,000, and Frankel's at ,175,000 from the initial ,125,000. Breeders who used them at these increased fees this year will have been reassured by their respective performances at Royal Ascot. Frankel had 18 individual representatives in the 30 races, all from his first two crops, and they clocked up three wins (from Without Parole, Monarch's Glen and Baghdad), two seconds and five thirds. Compare this to Galileo's tally of two winners, two seconds and two thirds from a total of 24 runners. Sea The Stars had fewer representatives but his comparatively small fourth crop, which numbers 74 foals, provided two of the meeting's star performers. Firstly, Stradivarius bravely took the G1 Gold Cup and then Crystal Ocean won the G2 Hardwicke S. in Sea The Stars now has eight Group 1 winners, six Group 2 the style of a future Group 1 winner. Crystal Ocean and winners and 11 Group 3 winners to his credit from his first four Stradivarius had finished second and third, separated by only a crops. That's 25 group winners from a total of 382 foals in those short head, behind the Irish Derby winner Capri in a hot edition first four crops, which equates to an impressive 6.5%. And those of the St Leger. Group 1 winners have garnered a Derby, an Irish Derby, a Deutsches Derby, an Oaks, a King George, a Prix Ganay, a Prix d'Ispahan, a Goodwood Cup and now a Gold Cup, which CRYSTAL OCEAN, C, 4 amounts to a highly prestigious collection. Lifetime Record: MGSW & G1SP-Eng, 9-5-2-2, $642,121. Good things are worth waiting for, and this applies to Sea The Stars and his progeny. Although he won two of his three juvenile Danzig Green Desert starts, including the G2 Beresford S., Sea The Stars improved Foreign Courier Cape Cross (Ire) considerably from two to three--by no less than 31lb according Ahonoora (GB) Park Appeal (Ire) to his Timeform ratings. So far only two of his 25 group winners Sea The Balidaress (Ire) Stars (Ire) Mr. Prospector have succeeded in winning at that level at the age of two, these Miswaki Hopespringseternal Urban Sea being the G3 Prix des Chenes winner Cloth of Stars, who Lombard (Ger) Allegretta (GB) developed into a Group 2 winner at three and a Group 1 winner Anatevka (Ger) Shirley Heights (GB) at four, and the G3 Park S. winner My Titania. Darshaan (GB) This suggests that there are group winners still to come from Crystal Star Mark of Esteem Delsy (Fr) (GB) (Ire) Ajdal Sea The Stars's current 3-year-olds from his 93-strong fifth crop, Homage (GB) SW & GSP-Eng, Home Love 6-2-1-0, $47,340 conceived after Sea The Stars had finished seventh among the Crystal Cavern Northern Dancer 8Fls, 5Wnrs, Be My Guest first-crop sires of 2013 (beaten by Mastercraftsman, but also by 1SW, 3GSWs, 16-3-1-3, What a Treat 2Chs. $54,611 Intense Focus, Captain Gerrard, Dandy Man, Bushranger and 11Fls, 8Wnrs, 2SWs Krisalya (GB) Kris (GB) 13Fls, 7Wnrs, 1G1SW Sassalya (Ire) Champs Elysees). Cont. p3 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 3 OF 8 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • 26 JUNE 2018 Vice President, International Operations Gary King Twitter: @garykingTDN [email protected] + 1.732.320.0975 Sea The Stars | The Aga Khan Studs International Editor Pedigree Insights: Sea The Stars & Crystal Ocean Cont. Kelsey Riley Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN The best of his 3-year-olds so far are the listed winners Sea of [email protected] Class and Knight To Behold, and there is also Stream of Stars, who disappointed when favourite for the G2 Queen's Vase--a European Editor race won last year by Stradivarius. Emma Berry It will be interesting to monitor the progress of Sea The Stars's Twitter: @collingsberry 2018 juveniles, which come from his first crop sired at a fee of [email protected] i125,000. This crop is his largest of his first six crops, at 135 Associate International Editor foals. Around a dozen of them are out of mares by Sadler's Heather Anderson Wells, who number Taghrooda and the Classic-placed Storm The Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN Stars among their four black-type winners from 59 foals. This is comfortably the most numerous cross for Sea The Stars. Marketing Manager Sea The Stars's progeny have an average winning distance of Alayna Cullen 11 furlongs, which is very close to Galileo's figure of 11.2 Twitter: @AlaynaCullen furlongs. Although Sea The Stars has excelled with daughters of [email protected] such as Monsun, Bering, Silver Hawk and Sadler's Wells, perhaps Contributing Editor it would be worth employing a similar policy to the one taken Alan Carasso with Galileo in recent years, whereby a strong emphasis has Twitter: @EquinealTDN been placed on giving him mares with speed. Sea The Stars's Group 1 winners include Harzand and Vazira, who are out of Cafe Racing mares by the champion juveniles Xaar and Zafonic. Then there's Sean Cronin Cloth of Stars and Zelzal, who are among the four black-type Tom Frary winners sired by Sea The Stars from 12 foals out of mares by the [email protected] top miler Kingmambo. Irish Correspondent Crystal Ocean's broodmare sire, the 2000 Guineas and Queen Daithi Harvey Elizabeth II S. winner Mark of Esteem, is another top-class miler with a fine record with Sea The Stars. There are only five foals of Regular Columnists racing age bred this way but four have raced and all four have Andrew Caulfield won, another being Across The Stars, winner of the G2 King John Berry Edward VII S. in 2016. Interestingly, Galileo also has a fine record Kevin Blake with daughters of Mark of Esteem, siring the likes of the Irish Tom Peacock Derby winner Treasure Beach and the Group 2 winners Kite Wood and Mikhail Glinka from only 13 foals. Cont. p4 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 4 OF 8 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • 26 JUNE 2018 In 2018, Royal Ascot was competing with the FIFA World Cup during the same time slot.